Better Days
by BeMerryEatCake
Summary: "So, you're saying my hair makes me look like a girl?" Rima rolled her eyes. "No. Your long hair paired with your feminine face probably just confuses most. Besides, I said you looked like a drag queen." Nagihiko smiled. "Ah, right."


It was kind of dry.

Very irritatingly dry and humid.

That was the first thing Rima Mashiro noticed at the funeral of her parents. Her socks were itchy, her hair was a total freaking mess. She hated the food. The chairs squeaked and made your rear end want to run away and never come back after fifteen minutes. Not to mention the whispering, the chatter, the hushed low talk of relatives she had never met, let alone heard of.

It was amazing how many times her ears could put up with hearing 'I'm sorry for your loss'.

She was simply baffled by herself that she could handle it after two long grueling hours in an ancient looking house that smelled like old people. Rima looked straight ahead, knees locked together and hands placed delicately in her lap like a lady. A perfectly adored little damn doll.

_(Can I just cry?_

…_can I just scream?)_

From what she could recall, this was her aunt's home. A sister her mother never bothered to mention in fact, one that was entirely the opposite of her personality. All goody-goody, sickeningly sweet and addicted to hugging and kissing on the cheek. It took all of Rima's will power not to take her hand and rub her skin raw of the saliva that came with the unfamiliar (caring?) gesture. It took exactly one hundred and thirty two minutes in this place to find total silence and isolation after being the center of attention for forty eight hours straight. Her aunt, pregnant and with a worrisome husband at her side, pressured her to sit still and she ended up by Rima for quite a sum of time. The one-sided talking was pure torture and plain awkward as her aunt realized Rima wasn't interested in saying anything. After a clash of dishes and a troublesome toddler making a mess of the bathroom, she scurried off to assess and take charge. A fact that Rima was actually liking about the woman.

_(Please leave me here)_

But she more preferred that she was being left to her self after non-stop worried glances and soft spoken words that were picked carefully, and out of thin air. Rima breathed from her nose a sigh, a big fat unladylike sigh to release some kind of inner feeling that wasn't just needed-to-be-released-air. Her fingers twitched so slightly that she barely noticed herself, looking down directly at her lap now. But a loud voice, a voice that belonged to some unnamed relative, sounded in her head like an obnoxious drum that needed to be torn to shreds.

"Poor kid. Barely into high school, ain't she?"

Rima cleared her throat, pretending, faking obliviousness so hard, she felt her jaw begin to ache as it clenched tighter and tighter.

"Mmm. What were those two thinking? Driving so recklessly…I wouldn't be surprised if they were arguing the entire time either -" An elbow jab to his gut she guessed as quiet ensued the passing moments.

Arguing. She thought. Of course that's what everyone thinks. That's what I think.

What else were they actually known for besides acting like children?

At this simplistic realization, Rima expected to be fine and dandy as she had been throughout the entire gathering of family members. But…as the minutes went on by, and her legs got even more hot and sweaty, stuck together in a breezy skirt that just wasn't being breezy enough; suffocation began to set in. It wasn't really suffocating, not as if she couldn't breathe. More like the kind that you feel like bugs are crawling all over your skin, your very face. It began at her toes then slowly climbed right on up into her very neck and shoulders so much as she could barely stand to sit anymore. Rima rubbed at her right wrist, the blue and purple veins under her pale skin throbbing at her harsh pressure. Her eyes skimmed towards her other, but quickly snatched away a second later. Suddenly, out of nowhere, she felt entirely abandoned.

_(Leave me here to drown in my tears)_

The thought, the very pathetic idea made her skyrocket from her seat. The sound she caused was enough to garner most of the living room occupants' attention. She didn't spare a glance to worried expressions, not even to the aunt that had tried so much to cheer her up with talks of the 'new school and nice neighborhood' that was staring at her with a concerned brown eyes. Rima made her way to the screen door and outside in six heartbeats. It was as easy as that. To escape whispers, to be free of prying curiosity from strangers that wanted to know if she was 'okay' out of obligation. The door slammed with a CRACK.

Her nose scrunched almost immediately.

The crisp, country side air made her want to vomit. Wind chimes danced to her right, not because of the wind, that was non-existent today, no, the sound had resulted from her less than modest exit. Rima eyed an old rickety chair on the porch and stared with squinting eyes into the sunlit yard. Her thick sleeved sweater was too long, her skirt too thick. Assuming that it would be cold here was idiotic to say the least. She stared off into the distance, a scatter of houses on the dusty roadside leading to a clean and neatly paved road. All the way out in the rolling hills of a place she'd never heard of in Tokyo.

This was supposed to be her home now.

Rima's mouth stayed in its solid line of indifference as she took one step, then two, then all the way down to solid ground. She kicked a pebble, just because, lips itching to go into a huffy pout as it left a solid scratch on her best left black dress shoe. It's completely different from its partner now. Couples needed to be compatible, the same it always seemed, or it would never work.

If they're too different…they'll just drift apart. Until finally breaking up entirely.

Rima looked at a barn that appeared more as a lean-to than anything. Really, her feet had a mind of their own as she began to walk towards it without any hesitance at all. There could be a hobo, a total maniac psycho killer waiting for her inside. But she was continuing on anyway. The house behind her was full of people that didn't know her, and she didn't want to get to know them all that well either. It was unpleasant, hot and sticky there. Here, yes, it was hot and sticky too.

But not totally…_unpleasant_. Her feet scritched and scratched at the rocky ground with every single step and she was gradually annoying herself. Eventually, as if she believed she'd never make it and keep going on some loop forever, Rima made it to the unimpressive barn house. It was musty and sweltering just standing near it, the door just slightly ajar, letting in a patch of light to shower onto absolutely…nothing. She thought this rather boring, but didn't allow any disappointment. That would just be stupid and childish. Rima wandered further in, coughing lightly at the swarm of dust infesting her lungs. There was a loft that didn't look all that stable, with a ladder that had fallen against the other half of the door, forcing it shut. Her neck quickly turned to wet as sweat gathered at her brow. Rima fingered her sweater hem, knowing full well she'd soon be sweating like a pig if she didn't get out of there in the next five minutes.

She did the exact opposite. She stayed put in the hot as hell area like an idiotic teen who had nothing better to do. Rima began to take off her heat trap of a top, just wanting, needing some kind of feeling other than blistering and…heavy. As if there was an unrelenting weight pushing and grinding down on her stomach, her very heart. She just wanted it to fly away and never come back. Almost to her collar bone, her face flamed and she realized that her over shirt had caught on her tank top too. It was her aunt and uncles unused barn, there could be some random attendee, curious, who could walk in any minute and see her in her bra!

Stupid! She screamed in her head, but her arms stayed put in their frozen state for a few shocked moments longer.

If she hadn't been concentrating so hard and the heat not so distracting, Rima might have taken notice of footsteps approaching right in her direction. A second passed, then another.

She heard a cough.

Rima whirled at the sound, eyes wide. What she forgot about was the fact that she was in an indecent position that looked ridiculous. Her arms splayed out like a chicken, showcasing her A-cup size to the entire world. Or…to be technically correct…a teenage boy with oil smudged on his cheeks. She yanked her top down and couldn't will her golden eyes to meet his. Her mind had barely managed to register what he looked like besides the fact his mouth was fighting off a stunned and disbelieving smile.

He scratched above one of his eyebrows, raising the other. "Uh…should I even…ask?"

Rima didn't bother for an instant answer. She swiftly came out from the barn, not giving him a single glance.

She stopped just at his shoulder and hissed.

"If you do, you'll find yourself with charges of molestation and sexual assault."

* * *

><p><strong>Um...well, I figured since this has been finished for a few months I might as well see if anyone likes it. It's not a mega huge plot story, it's very simple actually. Something I wouldn't stress over constantly for plot holes and what not. It will have heavy themes of course, a few. My friend wanted me to post this a a month ago or so, I forgot about it until today, chancing upon it in my documents and thinking 'oh hey, it's not that bad'. I just didn't think I'd ever post a Rimahiko centric story, I love writing kutau more than Amuto...but it's weird, I pretty much write more Amuto than Kutau. ANYWAY. Rimahiko isn't high on my like list, but this popped into my head, so...I wrote it. Tada! <strong>

**I'll stop rambling now...well, Rima is going through denial and what not, emotionally about her parents death. She doesn't realize this till later, so that's why she's all 'whatever' about it. I'm going to do a few flashbacks in the next few chapters to explain a bit more before she became an orphan. Nagihiko is not creeper by any means either, he's there for a reason. **

**OH YEAH, it's the summer in this story too. **

**Hmmm. Well, I hope you, random reader, didn't find this too suckish...? :D ?**


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